Temp. controllers?

[dmbnpj]

We are thinking of starting to keg. Our idea is to find a used full size/medium fridge off craigslist and convert it to a kegerator. Our thought is to get a fridge with the standard fridge on the bottom and the top part a freezer. Kegs would be located in the fridge part and run the tubing up through the freezer and have the taps coming out the front of the freezer door. So, what is the best way to do this as far as disconnecting the freezer part but keeping the fridge at the perfect beer temp?

 

[brewmasterpa]

very impossible to do. your lines will freeze and youll have no beer. you cant just disconnect your freezer, its integrated with the fridge. the only way would be cut the bottom of the freezer out so that you effectively eliminate the freezer part. i would just run your lines to the fridge door and place the taps in the fridge door. use the freezer for your glasses and partially used hops. also, it might be necessary to wire in a love temperature controller to keep your kegs at 36 degrees. this is the perfect tap temp for kegging. any cooler or warmer, and you get foamy runnings.

 

[flyangler18]

....keep your kegs at 36 degrees. this is the perfect tap temp for kegging. any cooler or warmer, and you get foamy runnings.

I gotta call BS on that, dude.

 

[brewmasterpa]

well ive tried several methods to prevent foaming and ive found that 36 degrees seems to keep my foaming problem down, thats just what ive seen from experience. other methods might work for other setups but thats what i know works for mine.

 

[samc]

Not all frig/freezers are created equal. The schematics for just about every unit made are online at many of the appliance repair parts websites. After looking at those you can possibly get it to work.

 

[dmbnpj]

Good idea on keeping the freezer in tact for storing partially used hops. I am surprised though that turning the freezer off and keeping the fridge on cant be done. I know nothing about appliances, but I just thought that could be done easily. Oh well. Was thinking the freezer turned off would be perfect for the CO2 bottle.

 

[brewmasterpa]

yeah, the evaporator tubes run through the freezer so you cant just turn it off. the unit only has one compressor, so it kinda makes it impossible. if you had a really expensive LG to use, they have computer controlled climate adjusting computers for each space in the unit, but again, theyre very expensive. it wont hurt to have your co2 bottle in the fridge. the guage will read low, but its not.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

As stated above. The vast majority of fridges have only one compressor and evaporator that is located in the freezer compartment. The fridge is kept cool with variable opening vents to the freezer compartment. On most units, the temperature control knob you twist just opens and closes a vent more or less.

There are a ton of kegerator conversions on this site. Stay awhile a do some searching. I am sure 90% of your questions will be answered that way. One such conversion is listed in my sig line.

As for temps, with a properly balanced and setup system, you could run your taps at any temp you like. I prefer to keep mine at 42ºF. I find this to be a very nice drinking temp. and it also uses less energy.

 

[McKBrew]

I keep my beer at 40 degrees.

For anyone debating between using a refrigerator and a chest freezer, I'd highly consider a chest freezer for anything more than 2-3 kegs. Managing kegs in a refrigerator is not impossible, but it is far more easy to disconnect gas lines, move things around, in and out and hook up taps if you can easily access the tops of the kegs.

 

[brewmasterpa]

i concur, i am going to be converting a chest freezer into a kegerator in the next week or so. im just waiting for a few more parts to show up. its just a pain in the but to do the spaghetti shuffle in the fridge. you can tap a keg at any temperature, but depending on your setup and preference of temperature, you have a lot of other variables to consider for controlling foam. ive found that 36-38 seems to keep the foam down to a minimum and i prefer my beer to be icy cold anyway so its advantageous to have it that cold for me anyway.

 

[mkade]

Good beer + Icy Cold = Mediocre Beer

 

[ODP]

Does this mean that converting a wine cooler that has a temperature range of from 45°F (7°C) to 65°F (18°C) would NOT be okay? Would a temp. controller enable it to run cooler temperatures?

 

[camiller]

Does this mean that converting a wine cooler that has a temperature range of from 45°F (7°C) to 65°F (18°C) would NOT be okay? Would a temp. controller enable it to run cooler temperatures?

Normally installing a temp controller won't let you get any colder than the coldest the fridge will get without a controller. The way most temp controllers work is that you simply plug the fridge into the controller and the controller into the wall and run a temperature probe from the controller into the fridge and the controller simply shuts off the power to the fridge when it is cold enough. That is why external temperature controllers work so good for freezers since the freezer normally gets a lot colder than you would want. If you want to make a wine fridge get colder than it normally does you would have to completely bypass the internal thermostat such that the fridge would run all the time, then the external controller would do as intended and turn off the power when the fridge is cold enough.

 

[ODP]

sounds like a good way to wear a compressor out...am I right?

 

[camiller]

sounds like a good way to wear a compressor out...am I right?

But if you are using an external controller it will turn off the compressor instead of the now bypassed internal thermostat.